Devlog 10

So we’ve been working hard on Overcrowd since the last update. I’ve been focusing mainly on system things, things such as the ability to actually save the station you have built, as well as run the game in different windows and resolutions.

I’ve also added a random terrain generator so that when you start up in ‘Open Play’ it creates a randomised floor space of different sizes and shapes to build and expand. You can tweak parameters here to get different starting layouts. On the gameplay side of things, I’ve fleshed out the refuse management skills, so you now have a full trash management system, with staff emptying litter into bins, we also have rodents, rodent killing, plant and plant watering, wheelie bins and trash compactors. Staff have a kind of skill tree where you choose what abilities you want to train them in. Over time I’ll be expanding each staff type (police, medic, steward, technician) each with a different set of skills. Alongside the station building and the choosing of various commercial outlets and prices, hiring the right staff and deciding what skills they use where will be one of the key aspects of running a succesful station in Overcrowd.

There have been plenty of other updates to. Over the next month I will be focusing primarily on implementing commerce and an array of shops/stalls. If all goes to plan, I hope to have a public version of Overcrowd on Steam early access, in the early-ish months of next year.

Here are some recent build notes, if you’re interested.

Overcrowd 0.41

*NEW FEATURES*

-load screen
-gameplay, audio options added. Gameplay options allow manual configuration of many aspects of behaviour in game.
-Added rodent infestation – rats spawn when litter over threshold every X seconds
-rat behaviour – rats nibble on litter, producing particles, and avoid commuters, random speed per rat, move to random areas for time before returning to eat. Rats have a simulated energy level that wil be used to calculate survival going forward and will simulate population explosion by “breeding” when in contact with another rat.
-New panning system – W,S,A,D pan view also.
-Stairs will snap to the nearest ledge when placing – they will automatically recess floor in its path for build effect
-buildmode remains active until press Q
-Alt tab pauses game and enters menu
-esc pauses game
-cancel a room build qwith Q
-water cooler places correctly and rotates but only on 2 faces (ie always appears from front)
-track litter volumes, from floor, to unit, to bin, to wheelie bin or compactor
-Add electrical shock effects when rats killed by rat prod
-Plant ability to cheer up commuters decreased as they run out of water and die. At life force 0 – make commuters unhappy.
-Created all object/tools/tool racks for refuse skill tree
-instigated refuse skill tree! litter transfer, bin to wheelie empty, bin to trach compactor, mop blood, mop vomit, water plants, kill rodents, roaming radius
-NEW REFUSE OBJECTS: Litter picker rack, Mop and bucket, electric rat prod, wheelie bin, trash compactor – all rotatable and saveable
-when staff spawn or return to an object have scr_find free space work correctly on grid basis
-Arrows at top and bottom of stairs
-build police rooms, place desks with new universal desk object to allow placing on room floor or corners and calculates rotate index correctly
-Scrapping entrances scraps all the cells
-No hover state and no ability to click on menu base level or floor build menu when already in a build or floor build/scrap mode – must press Q to disable a mode – avoids selecting another mode while already in one mode
-Make stairs snap to nearest ledge – recess in floors, make floors replaced by stair temporarily vanish and rebuild if you move stairs befoire placement, check if all normal floor to be placed on
-completed cursor to grid not drawing grid square unless on a floor cell, also can only build or show objects in such a state
-lock cursor in window toggle option in control menu, choose mouse button for drag option in control
-Save unit behaviour/needs vars eg tired, hunger etc – stored in global avail staff array so auto saved
-change border on build text pop up to fit all windows
-Save and load rooms and room doors
-Save and load work desks, staff, incl. staff paramaters, shifts allocations, xp, location if on shift
modulate floor build vertical slide speed in gamemenu
-Save and load game – 3 slots avail able – save all architecture and global paramaters
-improve rotate cam to use a virtual centre point to calculate where to recentre view after rotate to make less confusing
-make stair dust on correct elevations
-make cells either side of a new tunnel also slide up and make particles
-make cells either side of a new tunnel also slide up and make particles
-particles and slide up from floor on all object builds, incl room objects
-update unit job, select occupation to show new unavailable icons for job allocation staff file tab

*BUG FIXES*
-building in dead centre of cell now detected as in a grid therefore does not make object invisible on exact centre
-turnstil cancel build does not remove existing turnstile from under it if hovering over it which was corrupting save
-script find free space works used with police desk and use litter rack
-UNIT NAV: unit is not resolving a path through room door and so is relying on potential step instead to get out of rooms may result in walking into a corner if not going in door direction
-police desk spawned police on wrong face of desk, fixed to use rotation not facing var as direction indicator
-NAV: commuters who leave a turnstile or stair without a next potential way point are frozen – should go to mill
-q on power gen build removes power always
-fixed draw grid at correct height for unit destination when walking there
-Fixed the grid cursor showing at correct height when placing room doors
-Fixed ability to cancel building a room by pressing q
-Fixed escape menu unpausing game time if it was pasued when pressed. Fixed seipa fade on same menu
-corner and corridor cells now track floors as they build up
-placing stairs before building them reset all floor level vars to 0 messing up sculpt action
-Arrows for turnstiles trigger floor build animation when changed. WHen loading saved game, am now able to toggle arrows on turnstile correctly (previously left old arrow)
-Building adjacent to an easterly facing corner type (at rotation 0) causes build up affect on the corner tile erronesouly – in both rooms and station floor
-NAV: commuters who leave a train without a way out target mill. If you then build/toggle get a way out waypoint target, they do not use it until the train is sent?
-Stairs can be built in a way where they touch the train tunnel directly
-Bin placement is not linked correctly to the cursor.
-Pausing the game only seems to work for commuters who already are in the station. New commuters will be able to enter the station and walk around while the others remain paused.
-Pause game time, press “Esc” for menu, Press “Esc” again, game time now becomes un-paused.
-The “KO” sign remains on screen even when the player who KOed’s body disappears. Is the body supposed to disappear by the way?
-Scrapping entrance ability
-on hover state some buttons make multiple buttons hover
-cursor to grid will occasionally find wrong grid, and or draw the cursor too high or low. To be
-commuters create map grid mill dest particle all the time
-pausing in gameplay menu messes gamemenu state, leaves options up in play
-game logo to draw lower in screen on lower res
-DXT skill test does not rotate
-signal box depth incorrect
-placing track errnoesly on top floor removes entrance tiles
-correctly draw platform lines on rotation when build signal box
-fix delayed corner depth assignment when a lower corner is obscured by an earth column infront

Overcrowd 0.39

*New Features*
-Main Menu – Options – select resolution options, window or full screen
-Main Menu – Open play – select random map generation parameters – vary the size and shape of the floor space you start with in Open Play mode
-Added new buttons to Staff File – job select – correct button style and new unavailable role icon
-added hover states on Main Menu buttons

*Bug Fixes*

-improved and possibly fixed stair bottlenecks – commuter navigation on stairs was doing unneccessary rounding and divisions per step, was causing slow down with many people on stairs
-fixed commuters waiting to board a train not milling and becoming frozen to the spot
-improved milling script performance
-fixed hover states on build menu